Henry's roofing to the rescue!

Our roofer, Richard Henry, came by last night in the dark to save Drew's bacon. :) We met Rich last summer when he put the new roof on our house. Drew called him and asked for advice when we built the first shed in our yard, and Rich responded by coming by, giving a lesson, and loaning some expensive roofing tools to Drew, along with the shingles needed to complete the project! Then, yesterday, after another call, he came by around 7 p.m. last night and instead of helping Drew roll out the roofing felt on Manland, he just did it. In about 10 minutes. In the dark.

If you need a roofer, call Rich! I'll post his number later. :)

Trunk or Treat

Last night we went with our friends the Heyward family to the trunk or treat at their church. Melissa cheated by wearing her work outfit! :)

And, no, I cannot figure out how to rotate the picture of my girls! Help!!

We survived!

We did it! Thanks to Dina Brazil, and all our parent and community volunteers, we pulled off a great Fall Family Festival! And, to my knowledge, no one suffered a nervous breakdown.
Thanks everyone!

Tomorrow!

The Fall Family Festival is tomorrow! It should be a lot of fun, and I will be there dressed up as a cowgirl. Who wants to miss that, right? It's from 5-9 folks, and promises to be quite a good time for the whole family. Thanks to my friends and neighbors whom I forced to volunteer. :) Love ya!
See you all there!

Fall Family Festival

This Friday is Kaseberg's Fall Family Festival! Carnival-style game booths, clowns, great food, awesome prizes! It runs from 5-9. Drew will be there with a CHP car, handing out goodies and info packets. I will be there going bonkers trying to organize volunteers.
Hope to see you there!

Hank 1, Mattie 0

I rode Hank for my lesson yesterday. I love Hank! He's so pretty! He's half Thoroughbred and half Paint. And he's huge! He tried to test me the whole lesson, just as Frances did the first time I rode him. "Oh, her? She's new. I'll just ignore her and maybe she'll go away." Little does he know. Anyway, I'm looking forward to riding him again.
The girls rode Frances yesterday, and Krystin's mom Sheri (who is working with my girls right now) brought some washable markers. Frances is conveniently white, and the girls were allowed to draw all over him with the markers! Hopefully the Prop 2 people don't hear about this!

Manland

Here are the much-anticipated pics of Manland. I'm expecting the city inspectors to order us to tear it down any day now. :) He started putting the plywood on the roof yesterday, has put the front windows and siding on, and got quite a bit done this weekend. Hopefully he can get everything weather-proof before we start getting rain.

I need a vaction from Drew's vacation!

Actually, it's great having him around, but he's been working so hard on this second building that he's constructing in our back yard that we've hardly seen him. He goes back to work on Monday after three weeks off. It's wonderful to have him around for every breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, our back yard is a mess of construction materials, power tools, sawdust, etc. So, my days are spent keeping Evan from removing his limbs with a large saw. Or, helping Drew load 8-foot-long pieces of plywood or siding onto a cart at Home Depot with Elsa and Evan in tow. "Here, have more M&M's and stay in your stroller!" I wish I was strong enough and tall enough to really help him, but I do what I can by having his meals ready and bringing him water and Gatorade.
Sunday we are going to spend the day with the kids, and then he and I are going out for an early dinner together. We usually just end up going to Chipotle and splitting something, so it's not very glamorous, but any time by ourselves is awesome, and we don't have to spend a ton of money. Being happy with the simple stuff is so important!
I'll post pics of this building, or "Man Land" as we are calling it, as soon as I can. Drew is building it like a real house; he's framed it, wrapped it in the Tyvek homewrap stuff, put siding on, and is working on the roof. It's quite something. It'll be really pretty when he's done. He's polled the girls for color ideas. Elsa wants rainbow. We'll see...

My first riding lesson!

I did it! I rode Frances today! I had such a good time, even though Frances and I spent most of the lesson figuring each other out. I am doing English riding; there is considerably less equipment in this style--less saddle, less reins, less stirrups, but it encourages horse and rider to communicate with body language, since the thin saddle lets me feel exactly what he's doing...or about to do. Like stop. He kept stopping, even when I was telling him to walk. :) Krystin says he sort of "tests" new people, but he was very gentle the whole time and by the end of the almost-two-hour lesson we were at an understanding. I understand that I need more lessons.
The teensy little English saddle really forces you to hold on with your legs. My thighs are totally sore! And, uh, horses are tall. It was surprising how high up in the air I was. I also realize why people ride in full seat breeches--riding pants that have the whole ass area covered in either synthetic or real suede--no slipping around in the saddle. Krystin said I had a naturally good "seat", though, which is the term for how one sits in the saddle. Hey, at least I got something right! (Gloves would be a good thing, too.) I'm also just riding in my plain old western-style boots until I have enough money for some paddock boots and half-chaps.
Wish me luck! I'll keep you updated.
Have a great week!

Vacation

I'm still here! Drew is still on vacation and he's building a second shed/cottage in our back yard. Very busy! I have been helping with that as much as possible, mostly by keeping Evan away from all the fun loud power tools. ;) I hope to have some pics of this new structure up on the blog soon!